2024 – 40 Years Ago Tonight – The First MTV Video Music Awards
…………………………………………….(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on September 14, 2024)
………………………………………………………..NOTE: all posted contents are COPYRIGHT BOB LEAFE
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As you may know, MTV celebrated the 40th anniversary of the VMAs last Wednesday, September 11. What you may NOT know is that I photographed the very first VMAs 40 years ago tonight (September 14, 1984):
I’m not going to go through the entire evening – I’m just gonna steal a dozen or so images and mini-writeups from my site to give you a taste of what went on that night, starting with a shot that – apparently – no one else took. Because it’s hard to read, I’ve enlarged the good part at the top of the page):
I’m showing these in the order I took them. In this one, we’re being welcomed by NYC mayor Ed Koch:
Ron Wood from the Rolling Stones (and way before that, the Faces):
And Little Miss Boy Toy – Madonna:
Nick and Simon from Duran Duran:
Belinda and Kathy from the Go-Go’s:
Tina Turner:
A photo two-fer! Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo:
Cyndi Lauper and her Mom:
Show hosts Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler:
After the festivities, MTV had a post-show party at Tavern on the Green. I didn’t shoot much there………….in fact, my choice to post here was between a dopey-looking David Lee Roth (it must have been the bad photography) and my friends from The Uncle Floyd Show – (l-r): producer/director Jeff Friedman and his wife Karen (known to ALL Uncle Floyd Show fans as Weenie), Lisa and Floyd Vivino.
By the way, this selection had absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that I was the show’s photographer at the time, but I WAS (happily) surprised to see them there:
So what did I get paid for all my efforts that night?
It might now be worth a buck or two more than it was 40 years ago. The event date is shown on the back of the shirt.
It was so much – ahem – fun that I did it again the following year……….
……….but I’m not gonna write about it. I will, however, share my two favorite memories from it.
Favorite shot of 2nd MTV VMAs:
Favorite freebie from that show: One of the featured acts this night was Run-DMC. Darryl McDaniels (DMC) was moving about the room handing out Run-DMC t-shirts. Guess who got the last one (and promptly cut the sleeves off):
The first VMAs show started my couple-of-years association with MTV (until a new publicist who had her own favorite photographer came along). I got to shoot the first 2 VMAs, I was the stage photographer for the New Years’ Eve Ball going into 1985 and just found some weird thing I barely remember – also from 1985:
How many people do you know who have had their picture taken with Danger Mouse AND had a secret, autographed message from him that’s now mostly erased by time?
Unfortunately, PhotoShop brought the boring message back to life:
Way before all of this, I also photographed MTV‘s first Christmas video in their first year – 1981. It featured Billy Squier singing “Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You”, along with MTV VJs, record company people and my girlfriend. She AND I got in the last take. You might have seen a “review” of the video on “Beavis & Butt-head”. I have 3 shots from this shoot on my site under “MTV”.
One last oddity: I think I must have had an extra available shot in my B&W camera (film, remember?) when I got home from that long, exhausting VMAs night at 3am:
I seem to recall being asked before the show date to spiff up my wardrobe for this gala event, instead of my usual black t-shirt and jeans.
How’d I do?
Didn’t know I was 3′-7″, did you?
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